Method of rinsing soap from



Patented June13, 1944 METHOD OF RIN SING SOAP FROM WAS CLOTHING Albert Schellenberg, Joliet, Bl.

No Drawing. Application March 27, 1941, Serial No. 385,467

l 2 Claims.

This invention relates to a method of rinsing soap from washed clothing and altho it has broader application, it will be described as applied to the rinsing of garments for domestic washing.

Scientific study of conventional domestic washing methods has indicated that the most serious fault in this household process is the failure to remove soap from the clothes in the rinsing operations. This residue soap accumulated'in the fabric results in a dull gray appearance in white clothes and generally weakens the fabric to hasten ultimate failure of the cloth, this being particularly noticeable in garments subject to strains.

Commercial laundrles have long recognized the need for thorough rinsing to remove soap, and more time, water and power is consumed in commercial laundries in the rinsing operation than for washing. The rinsing is done in the same washing machine and usually as many as four rinses are used, including a chemical or sour rinse. By this method practically all soap is re: moved, but it will be recognized that this is accomplished at the cost of considerable-time and expense.

The usual method of rinsing employed in domestic laundries is to wring the clothes from the wringer into the first rinsing water where they usually float around for a considerable time due to the air entrapped in the wet garments, as the clothes expand in the air after being compressed" in the wringer rolls. Later, after the housewife has attended to other washing operations, she hurriedly douses the clothes in the water and then wrings them into the second rinse, where the same thing occurs, and finally, usually after another considerable lapse of time, clothes are mildly doused and wrung into the clothes basket for delivery on to the drying line. It will be noted that in the rinsing operation, the clothes are held for a considerable time in the rinse water, subject to very minor rearrangements or manipulations in the quick dousing operations, and therefore that during most of this time the clothes are practically on or near the surface of the water, and during the dousing operations are drawn through the surface of the rinse water. It will be recognized that this condition is not conducive to the elimination of floating, fiocculent soap curds which are always present in rinse water. Where the wringing operation is performed in domestic centrifugal extractors, it is worthy of large currents of air induced by the spinning extractor basket.

The chemistry of washing clothes in soapy water is rather involved, but for the purpose of disclosing the present invention it-will be explained that sodium soap, which is soluble in water, is dissolved in the wash water for the cleansing purpose. In domestic washing there is usually a large excess'of sodium soap over the actual requirements. When sodium soap comes in contact with the calcium (or otherinsoluble soap forming salts such as iron or magnesium-note! Hereafter where calcium is used, it will be understood to include all other metallic salts of this kind), present in hard water, it is chemically changed to calcium soap, which .is insoluble in water. The change from soluble sodium soap to insoluble calcium soap is made in a very short space of timeless than a minute. However, the original calcium soap is highly dispersed and in the very best form for removal from fabric. Later, however-a matter of a few minutes-this dispersed calcium soap coagulates in the form of the familiar flocculentcurd seen floating in rinse waters. This coagulation of calcium soap appears to be accelerated by air and is insoluble in water and when mechanically imbedded in fabric is very difiicult to remove. It is this imbedded calcium soap in clothes that builds up the wellknown tattle-tale grey appearance of old washed clothes.

It will further be noted that under normal domestic washing conditions, there is over twice and p'robablythree times as much water used for rinsing as for washing. It therefore follows that there is two or three times the volume of calcium for the formation of calcium soap in the rinse water as in the .wash water. It will also be carefully noted that the change from finely dispersed calcium soap (which is relatively easy to remove .from fabric) to coagulated or curd form (which is diflicult to remove) takes place over a matter of a few minutes and is accelerated in the presence of air. Thus it will be observed that the conventional methods of domestic rinsing including several minutes floating in rinse water is conducive to the building up of calcium soap in the fabric of the garments washed.

In carrying out my improved method of rinsing, I employ various types of apparatus and show such apparatus in my U. S. Patent No. 2,223,858,

and my pending appl cation, Serial No. 368,159. I have discovered by the use of this apparatus a new and unexpected result is obtained, and I now desire to clearly disclose what is believed to be a new method of rinsing soap from washed clothes.

By this method washed clothes saturated with soapy water are first compacted or squeezed to drive out a considerable portion of the soapy water, and then almost immediately immersed in rinse water to be quickly and thoroughly saturated as they expand sponge-like when the squeezing pressure is released. The clothes are now rapidly and thoroughly thumped and squeezed to alternately compress and expand the garments in the rinse water, and this effectively ejects the dispersed calcium soap from the fabric of the garments while they are being impelled through the rinse chamber holding a relatively small volume of running rinse water, with the surface water being continuously drained of! to remove allfloating impurities. The clothes are fed directly from the rinse chamber into drying rolls or equivalent drying means from whence they are delivered to the clothes basket. The

entire rinsing operation is performed in less than one minute and the rinsing is done under conditions which practically exclude all air contact with the clothes.

As a result of this method of rinsing, a minimum amount of insoluble soap is retained due to the fact that the running rinse herein described does not permit the calcium soap to coagulate and what is formed is highly dispersed and promptly ejected by the multiple squeezing operations in the rinsemater, and then drained of! from the surface in the running rinse. method of rinsing, there is no accumulation of calcium soap in the fabric and therefore no built results, I new claim:

effect upon the fabric.

Having thus described a novel method of rinsing which attains new and unexpectedbeneficial clothes, while having no appreciable weakening 1. The method of rinsing alkali soap from washed fabric in a rinsing bath containing a metallic salt of a character so as to react with alkali soap to form an insoluble metallic soap,

said method comprising squeezing the soap-comtaining fabric into a compressed mass to expel most of the alkali soap solution from the fabric and leaving a small amount of alkalisoap in the fabric, quickly passing the compressed fabric under the surface of the rinsing bath to provide complete saturation of the fabric by its expansion from compressed condition, flexing the fabric under the surface of the bath and continuing its movement therethrough to rinse out at least a portion of the soap in the fabric, the passage-of the fabric into, through and out of the bath being continuous and completed in less than one minute so that the retained alkali soap in the fabric is not converted to insoluble metallic soap.

2. The method of'rinsing alkali soap from washed'fabric in a, rinsing bath containing a metallic salt of a character so as to react with alkali soap to form an insoluble metallic soap,

said method comprising squeezing the soap-containing fabric into a compressed mass to expel most of the alkali soap solutionfrom the fabric and to leave a small amount of alkali soap in Bythis" the fabric, passing the fabric into the rinsing bath, continuously therethrough under the surface thereof and out of said bath, flexing the fabric while under the surface of the bath to saturate the fabric and to rinse out at least a portion of the soap in the fabric and yet not permit the retained alkali soap in the fabric to be converted to insoluble metallic soap, the rinsedout soap floating upward to the surface of the bath, and draining off said rinsed-out soap during the rinsing operation, the passage of the fabric into, through and out of the rinsing bath being completed in less than one minute.

ALBERT SCHELLENBERG. 

